During my childhood and teenage years, John Lennon’s “Imagine” was the LP from my dad’s collection that I listened to over and over again. The famous track which names the record was my favourite piece, but the other songs are stuck in my brain and, every now and then, some of them come into my head. This is the case of “Power to the People”, which I have not been able to get out of my head in the last weeks. Even though its lyrics were written in 1970, this song is still a modern call to action (click here).
Nowadays, civilians are undertaking big, relevant actions with a meaningful social impact. All of them start with an impulse generated by a transversal core value, which is common to all individuals (in fact, all human brains have the same neurological structure). Core values are, per se, unanimous. For example: Nobody wants an equal to die or nobody wants his or her house to be destroyed. But there is a moment when someone creates a storytelling which justifies the opposite. Then, depending on how convincing the storytelling is (or depending on how willing the listener is to be convinced), bias appears and the power of unanimous gets diluted.
However, not even the most sophisticated storytelling can stop a factor all dominant status quos want to push back: the winds of change. In the same way as Heraclitus said nobody crosses the same river twice because both the man and the water are different, change (which is the foundation of evolution) always blooms at the end (even if our reptilian brain prefers familiar scenarios). Change is not a strategy, it’s an action. Each action calls for making a stand and fearlessly challenge the power represented by the previous model. We could say that human beings need a couple of generations to neutralize a storytelling which wants to repress something unanimous. Let’s be clear about that: we all respect our previous generations (parents or even grand-parents) and this feeling will soften change in specific ways.
When talking about organisations, the situation is very clear. Generation X (born in the 70s and 80s, to make it short) refreshed pyramidal structures by introducing elements such as internal communication as a way to break silos. However, Gen X members still believe that change and transformation will be driven by their boards of directors. On the other hand, younger generations perceive boards as an outdated generational group who live very far away from the real world, the new world. Gen Y and X simply ignore C-suits and they just decide if a company’s worth working for depending on its level of sexiness. This fact will dramatically influence the survival of this company. The biggest burden old-school organisations bear is the combo of employee turnover, loss of talent and lack of contribution from the employees who stay. “We do not know what to make up to attract young candidates”, they say. Very easy: instead of trying to figure out, just go and ask young people what they are looking for.
Here lies then one of the most important change triggers leading to a new paradigm: the action of choosing and deciding by ourselves, which is a behaviour an increasing number of people are embracing now, regardless of their generation. In the same way as brands cannot impose their products anymore, companies cannot impose an outdated management style because, simply, this is not the 20th century. Today, change is happening in a way that cannot be controlled by the ones who used to manage everything and who now watch in awe how the command & control model crumbles. And this is the way it will be forever and ever. Power to the people.
